Malia Ewart, a very talented 18 year old from Redding, CA has begun designing a line of Frontier Girls clipart for use by our members. This line of clipart will be available in the members only section of the Frontier Girls website beginning in March. Members will be allowed to download the clipart free of charge for use in Frontier Girls projects such as scrapbooking, newsletters, and websites. Each month we will add a few more pieces and gradually build our library of images.

Issue #29 – January 2014

Issue #29 – January 2014

Note From the Founder – Frontier Girls Turns 7!

by Kerry Cordy

January 19 marks the 7th birthday of the Frontier Girls program. I just want to take this opportunity to thank all my fantastic leaders and girls who make this program what it is. 2014 marks the first year that we have graduating Eagles who have actually been with the program since the beginning. Abby Olson of Troop #101 was one of the very first members to join the very first Frontier Girls troop in 2007 and Charlotte Duke of Troop #109 was right behind, joining in 2008. Both will be graduating high school this year and both have been instrumental to helping to build the Frontier Girls program over the years.

We also have a tremendous amount of active and supportive leaders and parents out there as well, too many to name. I am so proud of what all of you have done with your girls over the years. Frontier Girls has turned into everything I always dreamed it would be, but I am not the one who did it, you were. Your patience as I worked out the bugs in the program over the years has been very much appreciated and your advice and support have been invaluable.

Thank you to all my members, parents, volunteers, and leaders. You are all awesome!

All Badges on Sale for the Month of January

All badges are 10% off for the month of January.

Aubrey Scholle, age 6, Otter from Troop 172, Maryland
Aubrey wanted to do something for “the forgotten”. We always see people reaching out to help foster kids, orphans, or abandoned pets but no one talks about Alzheimers or grandparents that are sick or struggling. Aubrey decided to decorate place mats for the Thanksgiving dinner for residents of the Alzheimer’s Unit at the local nursing home. She also organized the decorations for each residents room as well. This unit primarily houses elderly that no longer recognize family and are cared for around the clock by staff at the nursing home. They represent Aubrey’s “forgotten”. Kayla Hausmann, age 6, Otter from Troop 172, Maryland
Kayla and her family are acquainted with families that were personally affected by the tragedy in the Philippines. Kayla organized, gathered, and packed clothes, bedding, and toys for shipment overseas to those families in critical need of supplies. Kayla could barely fit in her car seat while making the many trips to the church to unload her gathered supplies and repack them into boxes.

These two wonderful girls are perfect examples of why we start the Make a Difference projects at such an early age. Even young girls can recognize a need and work to do something to Make a Difference. Great job girls!

New Shopping Cart

As many of your know, I have been trying to get a new shopping cart program up and running for quite awhile now, but it is finally ready! Since this is our first launch of the new system, please let me know if you have any problems so that I can fix them as quickly as possible.

At this time, we are still set up only through Paypal, but hopefully we will be accepting other payment gateways before the end of the month.

New Adult Level – Owls

After many requests over the years, Dingo from Troop #157 gets the Bright Idea award for finally convincing me that we need an adult level in Frontier Girls for women to earn badges as well lead them. While I have had requests of this nature before, Dingo was the first to actually send me a plan of action as well as justification for adding the level. As a young adult, she volunteers with troop #157, but does not have a daughter of her own to earn badges with. While she likes working on badges with the troop, she couldn’t work on them at home without a daughter in the program.

We already have at least two Owl troops forming, one of them made up of parents and leaders from a girls’ troop who simply want to get together and earn badges as adults. As one mom said, “It is so much more fun than a book club!”

The original idea was to call the level Wolves, but there was too much confusion with the same name being used in the Boy Scouts so we chose Owls to represent the older, wiser women in our program. As of January 1, Frontier Girls will be open to adult members as well as girl members. The Owl level will wear Royal Blue vests unless they are also a Leader of a Frontier Girls troop (any level, including Owls), then they still wear a navy vest so that the Leaders are easily recognizable. The Owl tabs and ribbons will be a light grey to keep the patriotic look of our uniforms. If a Leader is also an Owl, they may wear the grey ribbons on their navy vest halfway down from the red. All badges taught to the troop would be worn under the red ribbon while all badges earned as and Owl would be worn under the grey. As vests fill up (since adults have no further level to advance to), women will need to eventually choose which badges to keep on their vests and which to transfer to a jacket, tote bag, or other display area.

Troop registration fees will still cover all Volunteers who need access to our programming, but adults who wish to participate in the program itself as an Owl will need to purchase an individual membership.

Please be patient as we work out the bugs of this new level!

New Badges Released

Life Lessons from Beth

By Beth Vicoryosmanson
Happy New Year to my fellow FG Sisters! What a year its been! My mom runs an autism advocacy group, and every year, they put on a big Christmas party for kids with special needs. This year I helped a lot. I helped mom shop for the presents, wrap them, and helped run the games. I helped with some of the planning, too. It was a lot of fun, and in the process, I worked on my Event Planning Badge and Life Skills Award. We have had a rough autumn and winter, but helping plan

Tips and Treasures

By Suzanne Vicoryosmanson
I stumbled across this great website the other day: http://kids.usa.gov/. It has great videos and activities for every area of Frontier Girls! Just a few of the things I saw on the website include stamps, art, history and patriotic info, presidents, modern careers, and health related topics! They even have an area to learn about each state. The page has age-appropriate info, just click on the tabs to see the older kids’ section or the section for adults.

Don’t forget, some listed badges are generic requirments to earn a variety of specific badges. For example, the Sports Team Fan badge requirements are used to earn a badge for a specific sports team and can be earned multiple times with different teams. Seasons can be used to earn a badge for each individual season, and Cultures can be used to earn a badge on the culture of any country in the world.

Frontier Girls will now be putting out a monthly newsletter. Our first addition is already on the website. Log into the members only section and click on Newsletters. The newsletters will be archived, so if you miss one, you can always read it later. The newsletter will consist of a badge of the month at will be 10% for that month and will provide activity and field trip ideas for completing it. You will be kept up to date on anything new with Frontier Girls and will get to read about our “Girl of the Month”. If you have a special girl in your troop that deserves some recognition, please send us her story (and a picture if you can.) The newsletter also has a classified section. If you have old uniform pieces, craft supplies, or camping supplies you wish to sell, email me your ad and I will place it for free (only Frontier Girls related items will be posted). We will also be sponsoring a variety of contests, so keep a look out. Girls will be able to win everything from one year free registration, to various patriotic products. We also have a section for Tips and Treasures. If you have a great tip to share, or a favorite craft or activity, please email it to me. Military families can also pass on information specifically for our Patriots.

This month’s Badge of the Month is the Apple Badge (Discover Agriculture). This badge will be on sale for $.89 each until Oct. 15, so order early if you plan to earn it with your troop.

Let me know what ideas you may have to improve the newsletter. Thanks!

My main email system crashed and I have been rapidly trying to re-enter everyone’s email addresses. So I am hoping that posting this on the blog will get the information out as quickly as possible. Please pass the word.

Quest Clubs, available in September 2011, is a new spin off program of Frontier Girls. So many boys asked if they could earn our badges, that we decided to come up with a program families could use in a co-ed format. Unlike Frontier Girls, Quest is not a scouting style program, but rather was designed to be an educational incentive program. While Quest uses all the same badges and awards as Frontier Girls, there is no required uniform, no promise, no creed, etc. Quest has no specific program structure, but is designed to be molded to fit the needs of your family or group. In addition to starting an actual Quest Club, homeschool groups can use Quest as part of their co-ops, as well as unit studies for home education. Schools can use Quest in the classroom or as part of an afterschool program. Families can use it to supplement existing curriculum .

Frontier Girls members will receive a complementary membership to Quest as part of their membership each year. This way, if siblings would also like to earn badges, either alongside other programs like the Boy Scouts, as part of their education, or even just for fun, they will have access to them as well. To get more information regarding Quest Clubs, visit the new website at www.questclubs.com after September 1, 2011. You can also email any questions to kerry@questclubs.com.

Coming this September to Frontier Girls across the country is the new Frontier News, a monthly newsletter to keep our members up to date on the happenings within Frontier Girls. The newsletter will include a new badge of the month offered at a 10% discount, and will include ideas and activities for completing the badge. Also included will be:

Follow This Blog

Welcome to the Frontier Girls Blog

For first time readers of this blog, Frontier Girls is a merit badge based program for girls ages 5-17 that focuses on patriotism, traditional values, community service and a love of learning. This blog is designed to keep its readers up to date on what is happening with the organization as a whole, as well as highlights of what our troops are doing across the nation. For more information on the Frontier Girls program, visit our website at http://www.frontiergirls.com/